Friday - September 20

Bike

8h 47m

135.50 miles

15.43 Mi/hr

one of those epic type of rides.
Started off cool and cloudy with the clouds rolling and flowing over the hills. Rode without rain for the first hour or so. Then it started raining lightly. In the half light, through rain covered glasses I didn't see a big rock and hit it hard. Pinchflatted. by the time I had it fixed it was raining hard and the cold wind was picking up. Put on my wind/rain jacket that I bought after this ride last year. Awesome!

Stopped for a little bit in Marathon for food and drink. The rain pretty much let up for about a 1/2 hour. Then solid rain for the long, long uphill out of Marathon back to Alpine, the group pretty much stuck together.

After a break at Alpine the sun came out a bit while we fixed Doug's flat. Then we had a great tail wind leg for more than an hour. For some reason I dropped, but I was riding 22 - 24 mph over to Marfa. Big tail wind.

The wind shifted to the north and we headed out directly into it leaving Marfa. Only 22 miles but into that head wind then driving rain for almost two hours was brutal. At the end Doug was pulling at 14 and it was all I could do to hang on to the back. Tough, tough ride.

10:12 elapsed time for the ride.

I had to hurry over to registration, already an hour late. Could not find my recovery drink. Only Pizza at registration. Poor menu choices for me.

Thursday - September 19

Wednesday - September 18

Run

3h 08m

15.64 miles

12m 01s /Mi

Ok that was supposed to be an 18 to 20 mile run. I turned around at 9.5 miles how did it end up only 15.6? It's ok. That was about what I had in me. The trouble with running slow is that it takes you forever to get anywhere.

Lots of 10 min pace. Ran a 4:1 run/walk. There were some places in the middle when it got steep that I was pretty slow. A girl passed me at about mile 10 and I made some comment about her just running on by, and she said, well catch up. So I paced her for a little while and it looked like it might work, so I caught up to her and ran with her for about 5 minutes at an 8 min pace. Really fun, but a little too fast for me to maintain.

Saw doves, a bunny rabbit, and a blue jay this morning. Another morning with clouds rolling over the mountains which produced a fabulous sunrise. It was dark for a long time though. Enjoyed running up the arroyo and looking at what the recent heavy rains have done to the depositional system there. Sands deposited, banks eroded, and cut banks cut and collapsed. Really only stuff a geologist would be interested in.

When it comes to Chocolate, resistance is futile.

I'm a hopeless geek and really enjoyed years of Star Trek. The Borg were an interesting look at a different sort of society. And of course 7 of 9 was a treat to look at. So today's quote just tickled my funny bone.

Driving to Midland today. The plan is to finish some work, pack, load the car, and stop about four hours into the trip at Bottomless lakes and do a long OWS. I love that lake.

Tuesday - September 17

Bike

1h 19m

19.65 miles

14.92 Mi/hr

After three blocks, went back for a little jacket. Brrr. Lovely morning for riding, and the sunrise through the clouds over the mountain - spectacular.

Almost got run over. Thought the guy was not going to stop. The it looked like he really was, then he rolled right into the cross walk. Good thing I gave him a little room. Lesson: give someone like that a LOT more room, like 1/2 a lane at least. I goofed, but didn't get hit. Thank God for that. I really think the driver didn't look left until I was in front of him.

Sunday - September 15

Bike

1h 12m

19.00 miles

15.83 Mi/hr

Easy spin after yesterday's long uphill ride.

Beautiful morning. Took my time, chatted with cyclists I passed and waved to runners. being out later is fun because there are a lot more people on the trail. Coming back in, a fast cyclist passed me, but I caught him at a light. Decided to just use him as inspiration so I chased him, at appropriate 4 cycle lengths, and we rode ~ 30 - 35 mph on the semi downhill for about four miles. I think he was surprised to see me behind him through light after light. I finally dropped, but it was fun while it lasted and gave me just a bit of intensity for a short portion of the ride.

Set my Gramin up to do mulit-sport today. It's a darn good thing. I goofed it up twice. I had forgotten how to start the thing. So my bike leg is all messed up on the Garmin. But I know when I left and when I got back. Kept track of cycle, T1, run, T2, swim, T3, run. worked well and I remembered to hit the button going into and out of each transition. Time to start practicing race specific stuff, including working the Garmin.

Run

41m

3.36 miles

12m 12s /Mi

Run to pool and back. Decided not to worry about pace but just take it easy and do what I wanted. Set up to run on a 3:1, and mostly held to that on the way to the pool. On the way back I kept forgetting to start running again.

In the last few blocks I felt like running faster and ran it at a 9 min pace. Felt SO good. I wish I could run like that for longer distances. More track work in order, but I need to be careful not to overdo it. I think I've got to get comfortable with the idea that I might not be able to do the pace at IMFL that I would like to. Running out of training time.

I did not do my 20 mile run today. It's obvious to me that I 'm still not recovered from the 1/2 marathon last weekend.

Myrtl exercises after running. right leg strength is mostly back. left is not.

Swim

44m

2296.59 yards

01m 55s /100 yards

Knowing that I'm recovering, decided to just keep it easy, and not do too much. Just got in and did what I wanted and felt like. There was, however, this swim sprite two lanes over, and fast. Usually I'm the fastest in the pool. (that's not saying much). But that girl could swim. She was taking it easy and I had to work to pace her. Fun for a couple of 100's. Her breast stroke was as fast as my medium crawl.

Stayed in the water as long as I enjoyed it, then got out and ran home.

Logic will get you from A to Z. Imagination will get you everywhere. Albert Einstein

While riding yesterday, it occurred to me that this week I've been doing this thing on 6 hours of sleep every night. That is just not enough for me. No wonder I've been crashing, and not recovering very well. Since I've not been blogging it (cause it takes six clicks) I guess I've not been paying very good attention to what I'm actually doing.

When the alarm went off this morning, my body just said no. So I slept in till almost 8:00. It was awesome. And I feel so much better after sleeping in yesterday and today. I did make it to bed by just after 9:00 last night. If I'm going to get up at 4:30 in the morning to work out, I've got to hit the sack by 8:30 to get 8 hours of sleep. Pretty simple math, but easier said than done. That means I've got to quit work, get off the workstation no later than 6:00.

I feel good about today's workouts. The bike felt especially good, but the swim was rewarding too, especially after about 1000 meters.

Saturday - September 14

Bike

4h 27m

67.00 miles

15.06 Mi/hr

5700 feet of climbing. Rode over to Placitas and to the end of the road. Tried to take it easy, but going up the long hills it's hard to not push it at least a little. I kind of bonked at about mile 50 just before the long hill coming back. My stomach just didn't want any of my nutrition anywhere along the ride. I took some but obviously not enough. I didn't watch my time as well as I do on flat rides. The long uphills take an hour and a half hour respectively. Need to pay more attention to nutrition on the climbs.

When the alarm went off at 4:30 it was accompanied by thunder. A check of the radar (I love my smart phone) showed a large storm rolling through. When the alarm went off at 6:30 there was more thunder and lightening and it was raining Radar showed more storm had developed and it looked like a couple more hours. Slept in till past 8:00, and it felt awesome. Rode across standing water four times, running water once and mud across the road several times. I'm glad I didn't head out into the lightening and rain. Think it would have been dangerous as well as pretty uncomfortable as well. I'm so lucky. Even though I was very unhappy with myself for not getting out sooner, conditions were pretty good when I went, but it was obvious that they were not good earlier.

Saw pretty horses, lots of wild flowers, and rode into the mountains. The clouds playing with the mountain were gorgeous.

I had planned to go 6 hours, and try for a century, but I just didn't have it in me. Think a lack of sleep is a problem, and nutrition today was not on.

Run

45m

3.64 miles

12m 21s /Mi

Brick. Took it out with lots of walking. Legs felt like bricks. After a while it was ok, but never good. Supposed to be a 40 min brick so that's what happened. Not pretty, but I got it done. Felt hot when I finished at 4:15, but actually was in the low 70's. Not too bad.